Dear Sirs

 The President and this regime are running amok and Congress is ignoring it.

What is the justification for seizing Venezuelan assets and sequestering them in an account in Qatar under the president's control? Are we being made safer with violent masked thugs roaming our streets and demanding identity papers? Will the continued threat of seizing Greenland turn all of NATO against the US?

WHERE ARE THE EPSTEIN FILES?

Not to mention the truly pathetic sight of your Dear Leader eagerly seizing every unearned gilded award he can. Give the Toddler in Chief a gold participation trophy and impeach and remove him.

Thank you for your attention to the matter.

The Eternal Promise

In the dark days of Winter, 

Daffodils persevere.

So must we all;

So must we all.

 

Snowy Day--Works in Progress

 

Amazing Amaryllis Inspires Josie

This beauty was a gift from Josie's other grandparents, and it has outdone itself in blooms. Multiple stems from each bulb and sometimes five flowers on each stem. And the deep dark red!

Yesterday, of her own volition (which is pretty much the way she does everything), Josie painted its picture.

I was impressed. It took me years (fifty or so) before I attempted painting from life. And I'm still more comfortable with a photo or picture to follow.

 

Hope Dawning?

I see small signs that make me hopeful that this national nightmare is being challenged on various fronts.

May it be so!

 

Dear Sirs

                                       

It's past time to rein in the president's personal guard (aka ICE.) 

The egregious murder of Renee Good, captured on several videos, and the ludicrous attempt of this administration to brand her a domestic terrorist (after pardoning and celebrating the rioters of the attack on the Capitol) is a stain on our nation. As is the ongoing terrorizing of American citizens. Door to door searches, arrests based on perceived ethnicity, random roundups, and secretive concentration camps are the stuff of Nazi Germany.

ICE should be defunded back to its previous level. Empowering and rewarding a bunch of untrained bounty hunting thugs, while ignoring the very real needs of many Americans is unconscionable.

ICE should be unmasked and demilitarized. This administration seeks to punish Iran for its brutal suppression of protest--even as it allows, excuses, and lies about suppression of protest at home.

And then there are the Epstein Files. Will this regime continue to invade other countries in a desperate attempt to distract from the fact that they continue to refuse to release them in defiance of a court order?

In a sane world, with a moral Congress, DJT, Noem, Vance, Miller, and the rest of the cabal would be facing impeachment and justice.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

 

In Search of Serenity and Civility

ICE and its victims, Venezuela, Cuba, Greenland, NATO . . .and the lying liars of this accursed regime--it's hard to find any peace these days when every hour brings news of some fresh outrage.

So, after sending Dear Sirs emails, I turned to Jane Austen's quiet novels. Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma are old, familiar favorites so I turned to audio books of Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. 

And what a surprise! I'd read both some time ago and remember not being especially impressed. But listening to Persuasion convinced me that this was Jane at the top of her form. I felt better already.

The version of Northanger Abbey I heard was a delight! It was adapted and dramatized by a full cast of well known actors. And for the first time I felt the full comic impact of this tale of a young woman, steeped in the Gothic novels of the time, visiting Northanger Abbey and expecting horrors at every turn.

Austen was likely giggling as she wrote this. Her keen eye for absurdity is on full display here, and I was giggling as I listened. 

Such a nice change from real life.

 

Our Girl

 

In the Forest of Dreams

 Playing with color . . .

As Our Democracy Slips Away. . .

 If you are concerned about the current state of affairs in our country, it's past time to make your voice heard.

It's very easy to email your congress person. Phone calls are good, showing up at rallies is too. (But be careful, for obvious reasons.)

Silence is complicity.

 

Dear Sirs

 Where do you stand? With your president who calls the late Renee Nicole Good a professional agitator and claims (falsely) that she ran over an ICE agent who is now in hospital? Or with those of us who watched the video of the incident and saw the cold-blooded murder of a mother surrounded by masked thugs, unwilling to get out of her car, and attempting to comply with shouted orders to move?

I call for the arrest of the shooter, the impeachment of Noem, and the dissolution of the domestic terrorist organization known as ICE.

And the impeachment of Trump and Hegseth for their unauthorized war on Venezuela.

Where do you stand?

The Kittehs Say Hi

At last The Woman remembered us and took a few pictures. 

Hmmph! She takes pictures of us but paints a dog's portrait.

I, for one, would be an excellent subject for a painting. 

I can't say the same for Cory who is imitating a snail.

 

Ingrained

                                               

It's a memoir incorporating fine nature writing and reflections on the craft of woodworking, but I devoured it as if it were a novel--the ticking clock of financial ruin hangs over the story of Robinson's attempt to make a living as a bespoke furniture maker.

Robinson's reverence for wood is familiar to me, as the wife of a woodworker who reacts to painting most wood as a parent would react to dipping their child in acid. 

I too learned to appreciate the hidden beauty in wood during a stint at our wood splitter. It was like a treasure hunt--each chunk split might reveal some hidden beauty.

I loved the book for its attention to nature, to the camaraderie of a working shop, to the relationship between father and son, husband and wife, and to the importance of hand-crafted, one of a kind work in this increasingly homogenized world.

Highly recommended.

You can check out Robinson's work HERE and be sure not to miss his father's amazing wood carvings HERE.